THAI HOT & SOUR SOUP Mike Braden (psilo)

Ingredients:

4 large cloves garlic
1 piece ginger about 4-5" long
½ red bell pepper
½ yellow bell pepper
½ medium yellow onion
1 good handful Thai. basil
3 Thai. peppers (long, red, extremely hot)
1 chili(?) pepper (fat, purplish -red, not hot, flavorful)
Hot sauce(s)
½ lb. soft tofu
1 lime
1 can coconut milk
2 packages chicken ramen (or 1 package Asian noodles and 2 cans chick
stock)

Dice garlic into small pieces, but still chunky. Remove the skin of the ginger (try to loose as little of the meat below as possible) with a very sharp knife. Slice long slices of the outer meat (before it gets stringy in the core) off of the ginger (parallel to the length of the piece). Cut these lengthwise too into 1/8" strips, then cut perpendicular like 2 or three times (i.e. med length thin strips). You can also dice up any small nubs/branches on the root (de-skinned, stringy core is ok). Keep the stripped core. Slice onions and bell peppers into long 1/4" strips . Dice peppers. Chop Thai. basil a little (leave buds whole or half if any).

Heat up a good sized pot and add oil. Add garlic, ginger, onions, peppers, and tofu. Add hot sauces as you see fit, the more the merrier (recommendations: Auntie Soon's Hot Stuff, Tong Ot Sriracha, Tong Ot Toi, a drop of Dave's Insanity, Tabasco). Sauté for about 3-5 minutes. Add ginger core, basil, 4 - 5 cups of water and ramen soup packets (or chicken stock), juice of lime, and coconut milk. Bring to a boil. Add noodles.

Cook for 3 minutes (or length on Asian noodles package). Serve as appetizer in small bowls or in large bowls for a meal. A good lager, light ale, or tropical juices (passion-orange, passion-orange-guava, guava, etc) go quite well. A dry white wine may work too. Top with ground peanuts and cilantro if you so desire.